No, your eyes (and coyote lolspeak) do not deceive you. As of this morning, I have signed a contract for professional representation with the respected Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency. The Nameless Agent I’ve been blogging about all along is Angela Rinaldi. The Juvie Agent is her associate, L. Spencer Humphrey, who will be working point in getting MASKS sold to a publisher.
Now, a word on what having an agent DOES NOT mean. Having an agent doesn’t mean MASKS has a publication date, or a publisher, or any of that stuff. We ain’t published yet. Having an agent means having a foot in the publishing door, but that’s it. Ms. Humphrey has a lot of connections in the publishing industry, and editors know that she can be trusted to pitch stuff they’re going to like. That symbiosis, and that access, are the advantage to having an agent. They’re also the reason I signed on to have Ms. Humphrey market MASKS.
As a series.
Yep, you read that right. MASKS is going to be a series of novels, not just one. Just got the news late last week that Ms. Humphrey wanted a full rundown on a chain of books. I spent most of the weekend throwing ideas onto my thinking board, pulling stories out of my notebooks, and assembling a multi-book saga that will take Rae and Trevor to places I’ve only dreamed about up until now.
The outline is by no means final, but there’s good stuff in what she’ll be pitching in New York starting next week. Some tidbits from possible future books include organ piracy, mask kung fu, a superhero murder mystery, and the shocking resurrection of a mask everybody thought was dead. Oh, and we find out what the coyote’s REALLY up to …
But I need your help!
Over the next few weeks, as Ms. Humphrey pitches MASKS to publishers, they’re probably going to be looking at this page to see whether this project really has legs. The reason I’ve been posting all this MASKS stuff so far in advance of publication is to convince all of you guys that you truly will enjoy my book, and to show publishers that real live people will read my work. (After all, if I can collect a few hundred or a thousand readers without a publishing contract or a marketing budget, imagine what they could do with a book in bookstores!) So please, please, please, please, PLEASE make some noise on the page in the next few weeks. Post comments to the page and blog (especially the “The Curtain” entry via the link on the main page), invite your friends to come take a look — get the word out! We need this place to look as popular and populous as we can right now. The more noise we make, the faster I can get MASKS into your hands.
To thank you for all your help, I will be posting lots more goodies. There’s another video in the works, as well as more plushies, and Nicole Le is plugging away on more artwork. Hey, maybe we’ll have a few MASKS contests — give away some more buttons and stuff for MASKS art or other stuff. There will be character profiles, too, and maybe another short story. Together we can do this thing.
